One of the best budget robot vacuums can take a lot of time and effort out of keeping your house clean, without taking a huge chunk out of your bank balance. While you can easily end up paying a small fortune for one of best robot vacuums with all the most advanced features, it’s not hard to find a cheaper model that’ll do good job without too many compromises.
What do we mean by budget, though? We count any robot vacuum cleaner priced under $500/£400 as a budget model, and anything between that and $800/£650 as mid-range, and everything above that as premium. Most of our best budget robot vacuum cleaner picks fall within the budget bracket, with one that’s in the lower mid-range. (Now’s a particularly good time to shop, too, because the Black Friday robot vacuum deals often pull pricier models down into the mid-range bracket.)
Just because they’re relatively affordable, don’t think these robovacs fall short in terms of features. All but one of these robot vacs can mop your floors as well as vacuuming, and among our picks you’ll find options with self-emptying docking stations, powerful suction and advanced mapping and navigation. We’ve tested most of these models extensively and can tell you just what’s so good about each of them, as well as alerting you to their weaknesses. So without further ado, read on to discover the best budget robot vacuums available now.
The quick list
Best overall
The best budget robot vacuum right now is the Proscenic Floobot X1. It vacuums and mops well, it self-empties, it packs some pretty smart features and it comes in at a nicely affordable price.
2. Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus
Best for larger homes
If you have a lot of house to clean, this robot vac is up to the job thanks to a long battery life and mapping that can cope with multiple floors, and it doesn’t slack when it comes to vacuuming and mopping.
Best for carpets
This impressive robot vac delivers serious suction for its low price, making it the perfect choice if you have a lot of carpeting that you want to keep clean; it packs in loads of high-end features, too.
Best vacuum-only
Don’t need mopping? This model just vacuums, and as an added bonus it’s simple to use, making it an excellent choice for technophobes, although it’s a little lacking when it comes to suction.
Best cheap Roomba
If you want Roomba but you don’t have an enormous budget, this relatively cheap and cheerful option is the one for you: it vacuums and mops and has some pretty smart features for its price.
The best budget robot vacuum 2024 – as chosen by experts
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Best budget robot vacuum overall
For the best budget robot vacuum cleaner that’ll suit most people, we’d point you towards the Proscenic Floobot X1, simply because it ticks most of the boxes for what you’d expect from a robot vacuum, at an affordable price. Assuming that what you want from a robot vac is something that’ll keep your floors clean with minimal intervention from you, this one does the job, albeit with a few annoying quirks that you can probably learn to live with.
Our reviewer was impressed by the Floobot X1’s high-end features including automatic room mapping, ability to detect hard flooring or carpet and apply the right cleaning tools, a self-emptying dustbox with a UV light to kill off germs, and consistently good mopping action. This last feature’s a godsend in a cheap robot vacuum, as many budget models are decidedly lacking when it comes to mopping.
Bear in mind that you’ll have to attach the mopping pad yourself when you want the Floobot X1 to mop your floor, as well as filling its water tank, so it’s not entirely hands-free; you should also take into account the ongoing costs of buying new dust bags for its base station as well as replacing mop pads and other consumables periodically. But on the whole this is a solid all-rounder at a good price.
Read more our full Proscenic Floobot X1 robot vacuum cleaner review
The best budget robot vacuum for larger homes
If you have a large home it can be tricky to find a budget robot vacuum that’s up to the task of keeping dirt at bay. That’s partly because you can’t always rely the battery to keep on going through an entire clean without having to return to base for a recharge, but also because not all robot vacs can save multiple maps, making it harder to keep the whole house clean without constant remapping.
The Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus is a winner in both these scenarios, as it can run for up to 300 minutes in one go, and its app can cope with multiple floors. In our review we were generally impressed with how well it performed for its price; it vacuums well thanks to a pair of side brushes and an effective brushroll (maybe too effective as it has a tendency to get tangled with hair), and it’s just as good as mopping, although as with the Proscenic Floobot X1 you’ll have to attach the vibrating mop pad yourself as well as filling the water reservoir.
If you don’t have a lot of space you may run into problems with the base station, which needs quite a lot of clearance if you don’t want the robot getting stuck when exiting; we also found that the Deebot N10 Plus can be a little on the loud side. Nevertheless, this is a lot of robot vacuum for what you’ll pay.
Read our full Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus review
The best budget robot vacuum for carpet
Homes with a lot of carpet need a vacuum with plenty of suction if you really want to keep things clean, and many robot vacs just don’t have the power to pick up deep-down dirt effectively. That’s not a problem with the Xiaomi X20+, which packs an incredible amount of suction power for its equally incredible low price.
Our reviewer was frankly amazed at how good the Xiaomi X20+ is, considering how cheaply you can buy it for. It’s available direct from Xiaomi for just £299, but it has features you’d expect to pay a lot more for, including automatic mop pad washing, rotational mopping, automatic mop lifting and excellent navigation.
In fact, our reviewer’s only real complaint was that the Xiaomi X20+’s docking and cleaning station is huge and not very pretty, so you’ll want to tuck it away out of sight if at all possible. Note also that the Xiaomi X20+ isn’t currently available in the USA; for a robot vac that offers comparable performance at a similar price, we’d direct you towards the dreame L10s Ultra.
Read our full Xiaomi X20+ robot vac review
The best budget robot vacuum without mopping
A great way to save money when looking for the best budget robot vacuum cleaner is to opt for a model that doesn’t mop. While mopping is a function you’ll find on many cheap robot vacuums – as this guide illustrates – it’s usually pretty basic compared with the mopping performance on premium robot vacs, and in some cases you might be better off doing the mopping yourself.
If you’d rather keep things simple with a robot vac that just vacuums, we’d suggest the Eufy RoboVac 11S. It comes at a low price and delivers no-frills vacuuming; unlike other options on this list there’s no app or voice control, making it a good choice for first-timers or technophobes. And it does a pretty good job of keeping things clean on a daily basis; our reviewer found that because of its relatively low suction power it struggled with fine dirt on thick pile carpets, but found it it coped well with most cleaning tasks.
Unfortunately the Eufy RoboVac 11S no longer appears to be on sale in the UK; the good news, however, is that you can instead buy the Eufy G50, which has a similar feature set but improved performance, at a lower price.
Read our full Eufy RoboVac 11S robot vacuum review
The best budget Roomba
Roomba is arguably the most recognizable name in robot vacuum cleaners, it’s a brand that generally lives up to expectations; we rate the iRobot Roomba Combo J7 Plus as one of the very best options on the market. And while most of iRobot’s Roomba models comes with premium pricing to match their advanced features, if you’re on a limited budget there’s still an option in the form of the iRobot Roomba Combo i5.
Like most Roombas, there are various configurations to choose from. If you don’t want mopping, you can save by opting for a model that doesn’t have ‘Combo’ in the name, and if you’re happy with a charge-only dock, look for a version without the ‘Plus’ (our Roomba range guide covers this in more detail, as well as helping you see the differences between the various similarly-named options.)
The i5 is a slightly older Roomba now, but there are some strong reasons why you should go for this model if you’re after the best cheap robot vacuum cleaner. It both vacuums and mops (although you’ll have to swap in a special combo bin for mopping), and features iRobot’s Dirt Detect technology for more thorough cleaning where it’s needed. Like more advanced models it features excellent smart mapping and will keep on learning as it goes; it can even figure out its own cleaning schedule that works around you. It also features iRobot’s unique dual rubber rollers, which we’ve found especially effective at picking up hair and dirt.
The Roomba Combo i5 may be a little lacking in power and features compared with other models in this list, but if your instinct is to go with a trusted brand then you’re unlikely to be disappointed by it.
Frequently asked questions
What should you look for in a budget robot vacuum?
Inevitably when you shop for the best cheap robot vacuum you’re going to have to compromise on features and performance. However by thinking about what you need from a robot vacuum, you should be able to identify a model that’ll work well for you without costing the earth.
One key spec to look for is maximum suction power, particularly if you have a lot of carpet. Cheap robot vacuums are sometimes lacking in suction, but you’ll see that our listed options average around 3,000Pa, with the Xiaomi X20+ topping out at an impressive 6,000Pa. Bear in mind, however, that increased power means a bigger drain on the battery, and you’ll want to ensure that your robot vac has a decent battery life.
Another thing to consider if you have mostly carpet is whether you actually need a robot vacuum that can mop. Mopping is a useful extra if you have a lot of hard floors, but with cheap robot vacuums it often means manually swapping in mop pads and water tanks. If you can live without mopping you can save money and instead focus on better vacuuming performance.
The best robot vacuums come with base stations that not only serve as a charging point but which can also empty and even clean your robot vac, saving you a lot of effort. With cheap robot vacuums you’re more likely to get a simple charging point, which means you’ll spend more time emptying your robot’s bin, however three of our top choices come with more fully-featured base stations.
Finally, think about what smart features you need. The Eufy Robovac 11S is a good choice if you want something simple that’ll just do the job, but if you want features such as automatic mapping, app control, smart scheduling and object detection, you’ll probably have to up your budget a little.
How much should you spend on a robot vacuum?
This one’s very subjective; basically you should spend enough money to get the performance you want from a robot vacuum, and that can depend on the size of your home, what types of flooring you have and whether you need smart features such as voice control, automatic scheduling and object detection.
Our price bands for robot vacuums are as follows:
Budget: less than $500 / £400
Mid-range: $400-$800 / £400-£650
Premium: $800+ / £650+
A good robot vacuum in the premium price bracket will pack plenty of power and should simply get on with the job, and only really require your attention when bins need emptying and water tanks refilling (notwithstanding the occasional instance when a robovac gets stuck and needs rescuing). Mid-range models will be less powerful and may need more in the way of manual intervention, while budget models are generally the least powerful and the most likely to require hands-on attention. The models we’ve listed in this guide are within the budget price band and the lower end of the mid-range price band.
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jim.mccauley@futurenet.com (Jim McCauley)
